VU&NICO

First of all, thank you shrrshrr for letting me open this thread.
Ok, this is a place where we can talk about the political movies we saw and discuss about movie and politcs ( for example, if art is still art when it's political or as David Cronenberg once said, art loses its qualities when politics appear).

Ironically, I'll start this thread with a Cronenberg film: A History Of Violence, which is political to the extreme as we all know. IMO, Cronenberg was bashing propagandistic films, which in fact are not political, just rhetorical.
The title of the film itself is revealing. This isn't just the story of a man with a "history of violence", it's the representation of a country with this kind of history. Extremely political, then. And violence quickly hits everyone in the movie, the guilty and the innocent. Cronenberg is merciless and merciful at the same time. IMO this is his finest film, because the "horror" is no longer represented by something strange, something extraordinary. The horror is ordinary, banal, common, "political" (in the etymologic meaning of the word).

So guys, this was just a taste of this new thread. Let's talk about political movies. The Cannes film festival recently awarded Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes The Barley", a movie about the Irish-British conflict, too. Are political movies "trendy" again? Let's discuss about it.

ROCKSTAR

This is a wonderful idea, VU&NICO! I'm going to think about it and I'll edit this with my thoughts ASAP.

shrrshrr

Well, I have many favorite politically-themed films, and I think Cronenberg's comment is interesting, but not necessarily accurate...

One political film I'm passionate about but almost no one saw was Bulworth. I'm black (mixed-race), and of my friends of color who saw the film, all are equally passionate about it. Why? Because the underlying political message is one of the strongest and most nakedly presented I have seen in a long, long time...which is perhaps why people didn't see this movie.

The truth is we don't hold political sway and we have no say in politics because we have no money and therefore no power. We will never succeed on merit alone, as a people, and politicians speaking about black issues during campaigns is just lip service.

Another recent political movie I adore is Bob Roberts. Fantastic if rather cynical film that for 99% of the movie is genius (there are severl points towards the end where they lead the audience and that annoyed me, but whatever - it's nearly perfect so who cares).

One political film that was so mean I loathed and despised it was Wag the Dog. It was too cynical, if such a thing can be said. It was vicious, really, and I came away from it feeling dirty and sick, and utterly hopeless. It didn't inspire me to speak out my own political voice, it just made me want to curl up and give up because what's the use - ugly men are in power and will manipulate us until the day we die. *shudders* Superb acting, ugly, UGLY film.

There are so many more, but I won't inundate you - I'll come back and post later. And I'm so glad you came up with this thread idea!

VU&NICO

Yes...Bulworth. I saw it at the Venice film festival in 1998. I was just a kid then, but at first I liked it a lot. Now, I re-watched it, and I don't know, something's out of place. Its satire is a little milk-and-water, to me, maybe because it's so parodistic. On the other hand Reds, Beatty's other big political movie, is an amazing film IMO, it's really counterculture. I loved it.
Bob Roberts...yes, I agree. It's cynical and ruthless. And yes, I also agree about your 99% remark.
Wag The Dog. I couldn't agree more. It's just ugly, yeah.

I recently re-watched two Godard movies: La Chinoise andTout Va Bien, and...wow! I must say I miss this FREEDOM of thought. The former's of course the tale of a Marxist-Leninist group who decide to put in practice their beliefs and kill the Soviet minister during a visit in Paris. The latter is a "réportage" from an occupied factory made by two journalists played by Jane Fonda and Yves Montand. Ironic as ever, Godard said he wanted to shoot a "Love Story" with class struggle.
The message of these two films is perhaps outdated now, but you just have to appreciate the liberty of these works, a freedom that seems lost nowadays. Now, most of the so called "political movies" are just too lukewarm, they lack real passion.

LightYears

CityGal

Thanks for the interesting thread.